Ref cost us victory, roars Davies

Derby manager Billy Davies was left fuming as his side suffered a penalty shoot-out defeat to Doncaster in the second round of the Carling Cup.

Derby had fought back from three goals behind to take the game into extra-time and survived Arturo Lupoli's dismissal to earn the penalty shoot-out.

Davies was furious after goalkeeper Gavin Grant claimed the referee failed to blow his whistle during the thrilling penalty shoot-out, which ended 8-7 in favour of the home side, to allow the Rams stopper to prepare himself.

The Derby chief was also angry after Doncaster's second goal came from a disputed back-pass, and by the nature of Lupoli's red card.

"Grant is claiming the referee never blew the whistle, this is why we were angry at the end, he is saying he was never ready," said Davies.

"The referee was saying that he didn't have to blow the whistle, there was a bit of a debate going on.

"That debate plus the back-pass debate, which again the goalkeeper is claiming it wasn't, and Lupoli's sending-off is why we were angry. I don't want to sound like sour grapes but these are the main incidents that I felt were questionable. The referee didn't seem to know the character of the player when he sent Arturo off."

But Davies was delighted with the character shown by his side to fightback to earn the shoot-out. "It was a poor first 45 minutes, there were one or two who didn't approach the game, but we had tremendous character to get back in to the game," said the Derby boss.

"The way they battled back with a man down was first class and I couldn't fault any player for the penalty kicks. You just have to accept that it's a cruel way to lose a tie."

Doncaster manager Sean O'Driscoll was delighted as his side managed to come out on top, but insisted the weekend's visit of Blackpool in League One is the priority.

"They played really well with and without the ball, there were also some good penalties," he said. "I have never seen so many good penalties.

We managed to come out on top, but Saturday is now the priority.

"We had big problems because we lost James Coppinger and Graeme Lee in training, but the boys who came in did extremely well and showed a great deal of commitment and desire. When we lost Graeme, Steve Roberts came in and put in a courageous performance and he has gone up in my estimations.

"You have to give Billy credit with his Derby side, they played really well and altered their shape to stop us doing what we were doing in the first half. Billy is an experienced Championship manager and you could see what his side were going to do, we just haven't got enough in our squad to counter that at the moment.

"But we stuck in and played when we could play and defended really well. You need a bit if luck as well. They had a bit of luck to get back into the game, but we got stuck in."